ADVERTISEMENT

Dropbox Stock Pop Puts Kansas Native in Tech Billionaires Club

Dropbox Stock Pop Puts Kansas Native in Tech Billionaires Club

(Bloomberg) -- Dropbox Inc.’s warm welcome from the market has minted the startup’s second billionaire.

Co-founder Arash Ferdowsi’s net worth climbed to $1.1 billion Friday as shares of the file-sharing company jumped as much as 50 percent on its first day of trading. The 32-year-old Kansas native joins co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston in the three-comma club.

Houston, 35, already a billionaire ahead of the initial public offering, saw his fortune swell $760 million to $2.6 billion as Dropbox shares advanced 43 percent to $30 at 12:58 p.m. in New York, and earlier climbed as high as $31.60. The San Francisco-based company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ferdowsi joins Spotify Technology SA co-founder Daniel Ek and Veeva Systems Inc.’s Peter Gassner among the billionaires to emerge from Silicon Valley so far this year. Technology fortunes make up a fifth of the $5.3 trillion of wealth tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, more than any other sector.

--With assistance from Alex Barinka

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in New York at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.